Month: October 2017

During the beginning of the year I signed myself up with a type of club involving Baruch activity and others. I gave them my email, a normal one not Baruch mail, which they said was okay, and they said that they’ll use it to contact me of anything if I’m interested in viewing. Long story short, I’m sort of part of a club which I Cana participate in anytime I like.

 

On September 8, I went to the Museum of Modern Art, often known as the MOMA. It was my first time visiting this museum and I decided to go with my friends that I have since elementary school. We saw many different paintings, such as the Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. In addition, we played Jenga. Going to this museum made me appreciate art in ways that I would not have imagined. Although I am not taking an art history class at Baruch, I am taking a music history class. In my opinion, music is a type of art because it allows you to express yourself. Viewing these paintings opened my mind and expanded my imagination. I was able to look at the bigger picture and not focus on the trivial details. One picture looked like a depiction of Bikini Bottom, from the television show “SpongeBob SquarePants.” The ocean had seaweed on the floor and the water was crystal clear. Amongst my friends, I was the first one to notice that. There was a heptagonal pyramid that was upside-down and letters were on its base. However, they initially saw a heptagonal pyramid. It was only after I had brought up the fact like it looked like Bikini Bottom, that they saw what I saw. We also saw a guitar that looked like it was made out of cardboard-like material. They viewed it as a bird’s nest. These differences in observations made me realize that although we may all see the world through a different lens, we all have the same responsibility of taking care of it. We should be on the outside looking in and taking note of the important issues. This idea came to mind when I was at the museum and saw a model of the museum itself.

One day, on a Thursday, I had nothing to do so I decided on a whim to join a Writing Center workshop. The workshop was during club hours so I wondered why it was so long and I hoped I wouldn’t be the only person there.

The workshop was called Compare and Contrast Essays(or at least something similar). Since it was my first time the Writing Center in general I had to sign up and everything first which took a bit since the wifi was still really slow(though when is it not slow). After signing in I sat in wait like I was waiting to meet my doctor or something. Then the teacher came to start the workshop after 10 minutes of waiting.

It turned out to be a small, around 6-7 people in total, group though that wasn’t that surprising. We started off introducing ourselves to pass time in case more people were coming by. Then the teacher handed out packets which would be our example topic for the workshop. The packet had advertisements on them which centered around clothing/body image. The discussion started where we had to find similarities and differences between the first two advertisements, then later we compared the third advertisement to the second one.

The overall feel of the workshop was like one of a class. I felt like I was in a very small English class in middle school learning how to write compare-contrast essays. It felt pretty nostalgic. But because of that I didn’t feel much need to learn from the workshop. Comparing and contrasting isn’t really a hard concept to learn and I had to write it often, though not very well, in history and English classes. It definitely wasn’t bad though. Maybe next time I go it’d be a topic I’d more trouble on or something like that.

When I heard about the different types of clubs and fraternities available in Baruch, I showed interest in a lot of them and signed up for different clubs and fraternities. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to join a club or fraternity, so I decided to attend Beta Alpha Psi general interest meeting. BAP is an honors society, their fraternity is based on professionalism, community service, and brotherhood. They help students develop types of skills which later can be used on life. They also help students get internship at places such as JP Morgan Chase & Co and also help them prepare for interviews for different kind of jobs they are interested in. I really liked diversity and the relationship the member of BAP share. They also have events where the current members of BAP get to meet the old member of BAP, they said it gives a better insight as of what to expect in the real world. They have other fun outdoor and indoor events where one can meet new people and make new friends. I am not sure if I will join any club or fraternity this semester, but if I ever join any fraternity in the future I will think about Beta Alpha Psi. (I attended BAP first GIM so I didn’t know I had to take a picture and write a blog about it).

NYC offers a variety of museums and I set out on a Friday to explore MOMA on my day off. I had gone with my sister to have a day to spend time together and show her art and some of my favorite pieces the museum offered. My favorite piece at the museum is called “Water Lilies” by Claude Monet. I had first gone to see it was in February 2016. During my first time I was captivated by the grand scale of the three panels stretching across the entire wall and a focal point in the room. The lilies sat on pinks and lilacs depicted on the water and it made me feel at ease as. Months later in May, I went abroad and had the opportunity to see his garden where he got the inspiration for this piece in his garden. It made me immediately see the vision Monet had when he originally painted this piece because his garden was a world of colors filled with pinks, lilacs, and greens everywhere.

The museum featured many other works and I had enjoyed teaching my sister about various artists and discussing the strange methods artists use to create their own version of art through sculptures, paintings and exhibits. Certain themes I found around the museum were expressionism, abstract expressionism, cubism, landscapes, and minimalism.  By having spaces dedicated to each style, there are distinct differences between all of them with cubism emerging from Picasso and Braque, landscapes portrayed by Vincent Van Gogh in Starry Night and by Salvador Dali. Art has no limits and seeks to provide a source of expression for every artist whether it is replication of something else or trying to evoke a feeling they had and translating it into their work.

Today, October 3, I attended a Starr workshop about interview preparation. Workers at target came to represent this workshop, stressing how important an interview is, as it can decide whether or not you are accepted to the job of your choice. The representatives of target gave us many tips as to how to act in an interview. They spoke about the importance of many things such as, posture, maturity, confidence, and background of the company or industry of your choice. Target tried to give us an idea as to what employers look for in an interview, by telling us what they look for when giving an interview. I learned a lot from this workshop, as I am sure everyone else did as well. We all need to know how to act and what to expect from an interview, as we all will have to be interviewed one day. The most amazing part about understanding the importance of an interview is how it comes full circle. You start by being nervous while being interviewed by a prominent employer, and then years later, in some instances, you are that prominent employer giving an interview to a nervous student. Once you are an employer you will be able to explain the importance of an interview to many people, and the cycle just continues. I am a very nervous person when it comes to being interviewed. When I was interviewed for my internship this past spring, I thought there was no way that I would be accepted to the job of my choice. I was practicing my speaking and confidence skills weeks in advance but nothing seemed to be working. Until, my father, an employer, told me that the best thing to do in an interview is not to hold back from saying anything that you feel.